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HONDA - Dark Horse of 2018

So test One was a frustrating time for the teams as the weather turned what was usually a sunny Barcelona into a cold and grey days with snow on the third day of testing. Even so most teams took the slightest opportunity to rack up the mileage. What really caught my attention was, after day four, Torro Rosso with the Honda engine had completed 326 laps. The most any other team had managed. But more interesting, is it seems to be racking up times close to the Renault. The conditions of test one is not a good basis for comparison, we would have to see how Torro Rosso fare relative to Renault or Mclaren in test two.

Now Honda has found reliability it seems, can they unleash the true potential of their engine. As we have not seen the engine driven at it fullest potential so far due to reliability issues in the past. Whichever way you look at it, you have to say that Torro Rosso might have struck a great bargain here. I am sure the Redbull side is looking at the Honda engine with new eyes.

Honda and Redbull is a formula that can win world championships again. But we said that about Mclaren, the Redbull lot are less patient than Mclaren so we can dream on on this one but it would be great if it could happen. That would produce many seasons of very hard fought championships between three of the current best teams; Mercedes, Ferrari and Redbull. This is one possible circumstances that l can see Verstapenn becoming a world champion with Redbull realistically.

Let's ignore for a second the fact that you're drawing conclusions from the first pre-season test and things will be different come Australia. On top of that, as far as I know, no one has completed something remotely close to a race distance.

Even putting all of that aside for the moment, you're claiming that Honda might be on the same level as Renault. Well, even if they are, there is a problem - it's Mercedes and Ferrari that they need to beat.

I don't really see Mad Max becoming a world champion unless he leaves RBR.

True! I'm surprised by how well Toro Rosso have done this season. But I'd insist again on that the midfield seems to be super compact now and that we don't really have a suitable benchmark to ascertain how good or bad the Honda engine is, and how much of the performance is down to the chassis. We're going to need a couple more races to get a clearer picture of whether they've eventually got their act together. Keep in mind that this is the same engine that gave Gasly a DNF in Oz.